July 2013 Newsletter

Around the World in 80 days Floral Style … Paris, London, Hong Kong

by Casey Schwartz

Flower Mar­ket in Amsterdam

It may take 80 days for one to trav­el and attend all the flower schools we have list­ed here. Why not book a trip some­where you have not been and attend flower school? When you look for a trav­el des­ti­na­tion for flower schools, you get to see the sights and learn some­thing new.

The flower schools in Hong Kong and Sin­ga­pore would offer a dra­mat­ic Asian look com­pared to the Euro­pean styles of Paris and Lon­don. Imag­ine the skills and tech­niques you would come away with after hav­ing attend­ed just one of these great establishments.

I have had the plea­sure of vis­it­ing most of these cities while work­ing aboard the Sea God­dess ship dur­ing my pre­vi­ous career with Cunard. Dur­ing two of those sev­en years, I was tasked with cre­at­ing and main­tain­ing the large-scale arrange­ments onboard. I learned flo­ral design in the less tra­di­tion­al way of tri­al and error. I would have loved to have popped into any of these schools for even just a two-hour class.

Flower Duet’s class­es and pri­vate instruc­tion have drawn stu­dents from all over South­ern Cal­i­for­nia, Ari­zona, Vir­ginia, Cana­da and as far as Egypt. Kit and I love to teach and we pack a lot of infor­ma­tion and tech­niques into our two-hour lessons. We also offer cus­tom com­bi­na­tion pri­vate class­es in the event you are look­ing for a more defined path to a new career or skill set.

If we don’t list a school below, it does­n’t mean you can­not find one in the place you are going. Get cre­ative with your Google search and look for “flower design class in (city)” and you should find some­thing. Many florists are offer­ing class­es in addi­tion to their design work, so if you admire a cer­tain florist in the city you are vis­it­ing, then inquire whether or not they offer work­shops or even pri­vate lessons. Let us know if you take a class any­where in the world and share your expe­ri­ence with us on Face­book. You can nev­er stop learn­ing. Bon Voyage!

World Flower Schools

Aus­tralia

Flow­ers Design School

Cana­da

Cana­di­an Insti­tute of Flo­ral Design

Mau­reen Sul­li­van Flo­ral Design School

France — Paris

Cather­ine Muller Flower School

Zita Elze

La Belle Ecole

Chi­na — Hong Kong

Hong Kong Acad­e­my of Flower Arrangement

Insti­tute de Artflor

Japan

Mami Flo­ral Design School

Nether­lands

Boer­ma Institute

New Zealand

Nature’s Art Flo­ral Design School

Flower Mar­ket in Thai­land shows pop­u­lar jas­mine and mag­no­lia gar­lands. Pho­to by: Wikipedia Commons

Thai­land — Singapore

Noble­man School

Unit­ed Kingdom

Judith Black­lock Flower School

Jane Pack­er

Jamie Aston

The Covent Gar­den Acad­e­my of Flowers

United States Flower Schools

Mass­a­chu­settes — Boston

Rit­tners School of Flo­ral Design

Cal­i­for­nia — North­ern and Southern

Cal­i­for­nia Flower Art Academy

Flower Duet

Rene Van Rems

Ore­gon — Portland

Flo­ral Design Institute

New York — NYC

Dutch Flower School

Flower School New York

Wash­ing­ton — Seattle

Flo­ral Design Institute

Pike Place in Seat­tle where flower ven­dors must grow their own flow­ers in order to sell them at the mar­ket. Pho­to by Joe Mabel.

Wrist Corsage in Five Minutes

by Kit Wertz

Wrist cor­sage using Oasis Lomey Shim­mer Wrap wrist­let. This is an excel­lent option for wrist cor­sages as it will fit any wrist and won’t fall off!
Wiring cor­sages dur­ing prom sea­son can make your fin­gers ache for weeks after! So I was more than hap­py to make the switch to using a lit­tle glue and the fun new wristlets avail­able to the pro­fes­sion­al florist.

Recipe for the above wrist cor­sage from this past Prom season:

• Oasis Lomey Shim­mer Wrap Wristlet
• Lomey Flo­ral Adhesive
• 2 yards #3 organ­za ribbon
• 6‑inch #24 gauge wire
• 3 mini Cym­bid­i­um orchids
• 6–8 Ital­ian Rus­cus leaves
• 1 stem Waxflower
• 3 white feathers
• 3 Dia­mante Pins (to add some req­ui­site bling)
• Just for Flow­ers Spray Paint (option­al as I used it to paint the sil­ver shim­mer wrap pink to go with the prom dress that was also pink)

Step 1: Make the bow.
It’s impor­tant to cre­ate a bow for the cor­sage. It adds a light­ness to the design and acts as a foun­da­tion to hold the flow­ers and leaves in place.

Make a bow with organ­za rib­bon using wire. Make 5 or 6 loops on each side and secure with wire in mid­dle. Clip wire so that it’s flush to bow.

Step 2: Attach the bow to the wristlet.

Add a lit­tle glue to the plas­tic piece on the wrist­let and a lit­tle to the back of the bow. Wait 10 sec­onds for the glue to get tacky, then place on the plas­tic piece. Hold in place for 10 seconds.

Step 3: Glue on leaves.

Add a lit­tle glue the back of each leaf near the base. Wait 10 sec­onds for the glue to get tacky, then place into the rib­bon folds and hold so it sticks for about 10 sec­onds. Repeat with 5–6 leaves depend­ing on design.

Step 4: Add main flowers.

Add a lit­tle glue to the base of the flower head, cov­er­ing it well. Wait 10 sec­onds for the glue to get tacky, then place into your cor­sage design in a radi­al fash­ion. Hold in place. Repeat with each flower. Use 3–5 flow­ers depend­ing on size.

Step 5: Add filler flowers.

Add a lit­tle glue to the base of the filler flow­ers and wait 10 sec­onds. Add to the design to cov­er any holes and hold in place. Repeat with each filler bunch. Use 5–9 filler bunch­es of flow­ers depend­ing on size.

Step 6: Spray with Flo­ral­ife Fin­ish­ing Touch.

After all the glued pieces have dried (about 5–10 min­utes to be safe), spray the flow­ers with Flo­ral­ife Fin­ish­ing Touch Spray to keep them hydrat­ed. Place the wrist­let flat in a cor­sage box and keep cool until deliv­ery. If you don’t have a florist’s cool­er, place in the crisper draw­er of your fridge, but not with any ripen­ing fruit or veg­eta­bles in close prox­im­i­ty (due to eth­yl­ene gas).

Anoth­er exam­ple of a cor­sage using spray Ros­es and indi­vid­ual Del­phini­um flowers.

Video: How to Make a Florist Bow

Each month we like to fea­ture a video how-to that we have cre­at­ed. You can sub­scribe to our YouTube chan­nel: fash­ion­ingflow­ers so you’ll know when we’ve uploaded a new show of our own!

This month we are very busy with wed­dings, so we are fea­tur­ing a video by Gail Call of Gold­en West Col­lege which shows you how to make a vari­ety of florist bows. Don’t wor­ry if you can­not make a per­fect bow the first time you try. This is a skill that you need prac­tice and practice.

Flower Duet’s Bow Mak­ing Tip: It’s best to start with rib­bon that is not too wide to get a han­dle on how to cre­ate this type of bow. Also, have your wire ready to go when you are fin­ished mak­ing your bow and ready to secure it.

Book Recommendation: Cooking with Flowers: Sweet and Savory Recipes with Rose Petals, Lilacs, Lavender, and Other Edible Flowers

All we can say is YUM! Read this book and your mouth will be water­ing before you even get to the first recipe! The pho­tos are beau­ti­ful and the writ­ing in Cook­ing with Flow­ers is like your best friend shar­ing her cook­ing secrets with you.

Before read­ing this cook­book, I had no idea you could eat Daylilies! And you can eat not just the petals, but the fresh shoots just like you would eat aspara­gus. I thought the only flow­ers that were good to saute were zuc­chi­ni blos­soms but now I can­not wait to grow some lilies and get cooking.

Flow­ers are not just rel­e­gat­ed to sal­ads and dec­o­rat­ing cakes in this book, in over 100 recipes, you’ll learn how to make flower cock­tails, cheese­cakes, cook­ies, main cours­es like quiche and ravi­o­li and more with flow­ers like Pan­sies, Hibis­cus, Gera­ni­ums, Nas­tur­tiums, Dan­de­lions, Cal­en­du­las, Sun­flow­ers, Orchids and even Tulips.

Author and chef Miche Bach­er makes your mouth water with her com­plete instruc­tions on how to pre­pare each flower and then includes about five recipes fea­tur­ing a flower like Vio­lets. In the resource area, she shows basic tips on how to cre­ate flower syrups (good for cock­tails), can­dy, jams, cheese, but­ter, frost­ings, ice cream, and sorbet.

Ms. Bach­er also resources on where to order dried flow­ers that are safe to eat. When we work with many flow­ers, they do look tempt­ing enough to eat, but we hold back. The only kind of flow­ers that are safe to eat is grown organically.

Check out anoth­er great cook­book fea­tur­ing flow­ers as the main dish. The Food Lover’s Gar­den: Amaz­ing Edi­bles You Will Love to Grow and Eat by Mark Dia­cono, shows you how to make tem­pu­ra Daylilies with a Chili Dip­ping Sauce. Yummy!!!

Floral Design Tool: Flowerwheel App for iPhone and iPad

Flow­er­wheel App by Wood­ward Enter­pris­es LLC

We thought it was about time some­one came up with an app for flower peo­ple. This is a must-have if you are plan­ning a wed­ding, design­ing an event, or are a pro­fes­sion­al. Know more about the flow­ers you love with this elec­tron­ic guide that goes wher­ev­er you go. It now offers 694 flow­ers for you to choose, save, and email.

This app for iPhones and iPads is very handy for flower iden­ti­fi­ca­tion. It down­loads fast and costs only $2.99. We meet with brides on a reg­u­lar basis and have to present dif­fer­ent options of flow­ers based on col­or, and sea­son. This deliv­ers exact­ly that and is just what a florist needs in an app like that.

Cost: $2.99

Where to pur­chase: iTunes Store